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I couldn't seem to leave a comment on today's SC Question of the Day. Sorry, kind of a noob here. I notice, though, that none of the Q of the D I saw has comments....

Anyway, I liked the question, so I thought I'd comment here. This is my first time viewing a Q of the D, so forgive me if my comment is more than is expected.

Here is dzyubam's SC:

It takes a deft balance between savings discipline, investment knowledge, risk taking, luck, and time to raise a million dollars through investments.

(A) It takes a deft balance between(B) Deft balancing is needed between(C) Deftly balanced, it takes(D) It takes a deft balance of(E) A deft balance is what one needs among

Clever question. I like that the question first seems to involve a choice between "between" and "among," but the best answer uses neither. Very like the GMAT, and a reminder NOT to craft an ideal answer in your head, but to work from the choices.

A and B are wrong because of "between."

The next most useful split is the position of the modifiers "among..." and "deftly balanced."

The placeholder "it" is fine in C, but it can't take the modifier "deftly balanced," so C is out.

The modifier "among..." should touch the noun it modifies, the list "savings discipline, investment knowledge, risk taking, luck, and time," so E is out.

Can you please illustrate - "[highlight]The modifier "among..." should touch the noun it modifies[/highlight]" with example?

Cheers!Aj. _________________

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What you do TODAY is important because you're exchanging a day of your life for it!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About between vs. among:I should have said that A and B are wrong because "between" can't be used with more than two objects. You say "between x and y," but "among x, y, and z."

About that modifier issue:Noun modifiers must touch the nouns they modify, with just a few exceptions. The core of this sentence is, It takes a balance to raise dollars. Everything else is a modifier. In D, the phrase of savings discipline, investment knowledge, risk taking, luck, and time correctly modifies the noun balance. In E the phrase among savings discipline, investment knowledge, risk taking, luck, and time is incorrectly separated from the noun it's meant to modify, still balance. Instead it seems to nonsensically modify the entire clause A balance is what one needs. That's when one needs a balance, when one is among savings, etc. Huh? Again, that's nonsense.

As I compliment Michaels for his excellent insight into this topic, May I also complement the analysis from another dimension concerning the contextual use of among vs of; let me illustrate

Let us take a case of selecting a balanced food. We say, we want a balanced food of Carbohydrates proteins, lipid, minerals, vitamins and fiber, because here we want each of the nutrients to be present in judicious quantities. We do not say we want a balanced food among xyz and so on. In other words, when we to specify a set of choice from a number of given attributes, we may use ‘among’; when we want an amalgam of all the attributes, we may say ‘of’. You can see how the prepositional idiom ‘among’ gives way to ‘of’ to maintain the correct meaning, which is what I think, GMAT is to wanting to inculcate these days.

A kudo each for MichaelS and dzyubam for their ‘meaningful’ contributions.

One personal question for MichaelS: I see that you have already achieved the maximum in GRE and GMAT; what is the reason for your re-writing these tests? Is there any professional advantage in doing that or is it just for the heck of it? You may ignore this query, if you do not like. _________________

I take the tests for work. Nested in that horrible picture of me you'll notice the MGMAT logo. The tests can be fun though. I'll take the GMAT again once the big changes hit. Likewise, although I took the GRE just last year, I'll probably take it again in the next several weeks to see the real new test for myself. _________________

I take the tests for work. Nested in that horrible picture of me you'll notice the MGMAT logo. The tests can be fun though. I'll take the GMAT again once the big changes hit. Likewise, although I took the GRE just last year, I'll probably take it again in the next several weeks to see the real new test for myself.